He luckily made it to shore safely!

Augusta Statz

2 months ago

The last thing you might expect to see while swimming in shallow water in the Bahamas is a group of sharks. But, as a shocking viral video shows, as soon as one little boy jumped in, four sharks started heading his way.

Thankfully, a man on the beach was flying a drone to capture footage of the clear blue waters and was able to spot the nearby sharks that were threatening the boy. Upon seeing them encroaching, Artem Tkachenko, who was operating the drone, yelled at the boy to run. Thanks to his warning, the child was able to get out of the water safely.

You can see in the footage that this was most certainly a close call for the little boy. One shark actually got quite close to him before turning away. Watch as the young boy gets out of the water in the knick of time:

This certainly isn’t the first time an unsuspecting swimmer has had an encounter with sharks while on vacation in the Bahamas. According to Shark Attack Data, there have been 98 reported shark attacks in the Bahamas, with the most recent occurring in August 2016.

Just like the boy in the drone video, a woman who was swimming last year while on vacation in the Caribbean had no idea a shark was nearby. But unlike him, she was attacked, according to news.com.au. The shark that attacked her was reportedly a nurse shark, which could be the type that were headed for the little boy in the video, too.

According to National Geographic, nurse sharks are sea-floor sharks, meaning they could swim in shallow waters similar to where the boy was swimming. They’re also mostly docile around humans when they’re unprovoked, which could be why they don’t get too close to the child in the clip.

Shark Sider reports that nurse sharks swim in groups of as many as 40 sharks, which could also explain why four so quickly surround the boy at once. The boy was lucky to be able to avoid a run-in with these creatures, but this video can definitely serve as a reminder to be careful and aware when enjoying a swim in the ocean, no matter how shallow the waters.